A Superior Court judge yesterday dismissed a lawsuit by a Belleville man who claims he was falsely arrested and harassed over a number of years by a member of his town's police department.

The opinion by Judge Donald Merkelbach did not address whether officer Anthony Weedo was guilty of mistreating the plaintiff, Darian Ehler. Weedo was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

But the ruling found that the township and its police department, the two defendants, were not guilty of condoning Weedo's wrongdoing. It said the town was not aware of serious complaints about him prior to his alleged false arrest of Ehler on drunken driving charges in 2002.

Belleville Township Manager Mauro Tucci said the community's political leadership and its police department were vindicated by the judge's ruling.

"The town is always concerned about any allegation of inappropriate behavior," Mauro said. "We will continue to look at this internally, and we will continue to train our officers. This mayor and this administration do not condone the type of behavior that was alleged."

Police Chief Joseph Rotonda said Weedo remains on patrol duty and is not facing any disciplinary charges.

Timothy Alexander, Ehler's lawyer, said he would appeal Merkel bach's ruling, which he called "a miscarriage of justice."

"This David versus Goliath saga is not over," he said. "Is this officer going to be able to continue falsely arresting citizens without any re percussions?"

Rotonda said he believed Alexander had a "personal vendetta" against the Belleville police since they arrested him on drunken driving charges last year. But Alexander said he was already in the middle of the case when that arrest oc curred. The attorney, who is appealing his conviction, believes the drunken driving charge was retaliation by the police.

Weedo and another officer, Jo seph DeRose, arrested Ehler on drunken driving charges on May 31, 2002. Weedo wrote in his report that Ehler was repeatedly changing lanes, failed to pull over when they activated their lights on Franklin Avenue and was barely able to walk after he got out of the car. He said Ehler refused a Breathalyzer test.

Belleville Municipal Court Judge Frank Zinna dismissed the charges in August 2002, noting that a video camera mounted on the police car showed much of Weedo's report to be false.

The video depicted Ehler, 31, walking with no trouble. It did not show multiple lane changes and pictured the officers activating their lights and the defendant immediately pulling over outside his house on Rocco Avenue, not on Franklin.

Alexander says Ehler was in a Belleville police cell for 16 hours after the arrest because he could not produce a copy of his driver's license and was groped by a bleed ing carjacking suspect who was put in the cell with him.

While investigating an internal affairs complaint filed by Ehler, the department received a letter from the Essex County Prosecutor's Office noting that Weedo had made false statements on a police report following his arrest of a robbery suspect in September 2001. The letter recommended that Weedo be disciplined.

Rotonda suspended Weedo for five days for his actions in the robbery case and referred him to a psychiatrist, who found he had "narcissistic personality traits" and needed therapy, according to court records.

But he was not disciplined for the drunken driving arrest, other than a referral for training on "DWI recognition."

Alexander claims Ehler's drunken driving arrest was a part of a pattern of harassment that went on for years but intensified after Ehler began dating the es tranged wife of another police officer, Phil Canning.

He said Weedo arrested Ehler in 2000 after he found him parked illegally in a township park after dark with a woman in his car. Alexander said the officer forced Ehler to put on the woman's pants and, after Ehler passed a Breathalyzer test, the officer arrested him on suspi cion of smoking marijuana.

A blood test later showed he had no marijuana in his system, and all but the illegal parking charges were dismissed.

Rotonda, who spoke about the case for the first time yesterday, said the police report showed that Ehler and the woman mistakenly put on each other's pants in their haste to get dressed when they saw police coming.

He also said none of the officers monitoring video cameras in the cells while Ehler was being held in 2002 reported seeing him being molested, and he said Ehler made no such complaint at the time.

"It's not the policy of the Belleville Police Department to harass citizens, and any and all complaints are taken seriously and investigated by the internal affairs bureau," he said.